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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

In the dead of night in an abandoned dock building
in Boston, 1978, Justine (Brie Larson),
a well-connected businesswoman has facilitated a deal between some amateur IRA
militants (Cillian Murphy, Michael Smiley, Sam Riley) and vainglorious international gunrunners (Arnie Hammer, Sharlto Copley).It is
supposed to be a straight swap of a van of M16s and a suitcase packed with
dollars, but tensions are high and one of the periphery goons on either side of
the deal recognise each other leading to an altercation where bullets are
exchanged… for the next 90 minutes.

That is essentially the whole plot of Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire: an extended shoot out in an old warehouse between rival
egomaniacal criminal ‘gangs’.Yet it is
so tightly scripted, acted and contained that it could have lasted another 60
minutes and still been engaging.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Early on in Matt D’Avelia’s Design Disruptors, someone remarks that
‘design’ is “solving old world problems with new world technologies.” – and
with that, the tone is set for the next hour.An assembly of some of the more progressive and influential design minds
from some of the most disruptive companies – Faceboook, Twitter, Uber, Dropbox,
Mailchimp, Evernote, Lyft – discussing the importance of good user experience
and game-changing products and services.It is a distinctly 21st century documentary, from its
aesthetics to its language and rhetoric, and is a fascinating insight into the
minds and processes of these mega companies that have had such an impact on our
daily lives.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

It is so obvious from Hell or High Water that screenwriter Taylor Sheridan is a Texan native that
I haven’t even Googled it.The dialogue,
hyper-masculinity, derisory sense of humour and 2nd amendment
fetishism of this Wild West Road Movie all scream a lifetime’s research in the
Lone Star State.

Two brothers, Toby (Chris Pine) & Tanner (Ben
Foster), are robbing small town banks for small bills with nothing but
pistols and balaclavas and a “shitty” getaway car. The money, for Toby, is for a family emergency
and strictly business, yet Tanner is fresh out of jail and enjoys the thrill of
the heist.The film then evolves into a
double buddy-movie retiring detective Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Native American Alberto (Gil Birmingham) bickering like an old odd-couple as they follow the
brothers’ tracks.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

When
a new resident arrives in a small North Dakota farm town with a population of
24 (including children), the people are naturally going to notice.When they start to plant neo-Nazi flags and
get the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s internal terroirism unit,
the people are going to get scared.When
the new guy creates a website inviting his neo-Nazi friends to join him under
the headline Cobbsville: White Supremacist takeover, the people have to take
action…

Monday, March 21, 2016

If you’re reading this, I assume that
you’re a fan of cinema.And can
certainly name a handful of directors, and probably producers and
scriptwriters, but then it gets trickier.How many established editors can you name? Or cinematographers?How about production manager? Or what about costume
designers?!

Most of the people who have designed
some of the most iconic images in cinema history are largely forgotten.That’s the nature of the medium – the stars
onscreen are mythologized, whilst the technicians behind the scenes are just
cogs in a collaborative machine.That
is, until someone shines a light on a largely forgotten genius and suddenly the
nature of the work is brought to the fore.Orry-Kelly was one of the
greatest costume designers of all time, working on such classics as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Angels
with Dirty Faces, Oklahoma! and Some Like it Hot.

In the meantime, Armenian taxi driver
Razmik (Karren Karagulian) with a taste in picking up pre-op trans hookers and
having quickies in carwashes is also trying to find Sin-Dee for some fun, which
does not go down well with his extended family…

The best documentary films shine a light
on a corner of the world that is misunderstood and work to change viewer’s
opinions.Whether they’re about a huge
phenomenon in culture or the life of just a single person, they should provide
insight and they should do it with passion.

Shaleece
Haas’ directorial debut
Real Boy is exactly that: framing the
formative years of a young transgender teenager amidst the transition from
Rachael to Bennett Wallace.As Shaleece
follows him through hormone therapy and his ‘top’ surgery, as well as meeting
similar young men including his transgender hero Joe Stevens, it is impossible not to feel sympathy for Ben and
those like him through the compassion of the camera.

The narrative of America is littered
with entrepreneurial opportunists spotting a gap in a market and filling it
with the right product at the right time and changing history.Yet Chuck
Holmes will probably not feature in any school syllabuses any time
soon.As his right time was 1971 San
Francisco, and his right product was hardcore gay pornography.

First sold as 8mm ‘smutty’ loops featured
out of the back of a catalogue and then as feature length films sold on
VHS.Chuck founded Falcon Studios with a
passion for sex, and men and an eye for business.